Globe tops survey on Internet providers

MANILA, Philippines - Globe Telecom emergedas the most popular service provider for mobile Internet services in the Yahoo! Net Index 2011, an annual consumer study jointly conducted by Yahoo! Southeast Asia and Nielsen that tracks the trends and Internet habits of Filipinos.

The study, now on its third year, was participated in by a total of 1,500 respondents across all socio-economic classes living in 22 major cities in the country. It used a two-part structured questionnaire to determine Internet usage and behavior, which included mobile Internet, or access of the Internet via the mobile phone.

The Yahoo! Net Index 2011 further revealed that the Philippines stands apart as the only country in Southeast Asia where women make up a higher proportion of mobile Internet users than men at 57 percent. It also disclosed that growth in mobile Internet activity came from the youth segment and those from the lower economic groups who use affordable handsets bundled with bite-sized voice and data plans for sending e-mails, social networking, instant messaging and search engines.

“Accessing the Internet on mobile is rapidly growing across Southeast Asia. By and large we see similar trends across the region in terms of use and access at home, the young demography, affordable handsets and bite-sized prepaid data plans all driving mobile Internet growth,” according to David Jeffs, head of insights for Yahoo! Southeast Asia.

“As more Filipinos access the Web via mobile, this will allow telecom companies achieve economies of scale and bring down tariffs, in turn adding further stimulus to mobile Internet growth.”

With the rapid penetration of social media and availability of more affordable smartphones among Filipino mobile phone owners, Globe said it looks at its mobile data business to sustain momentum after the segment posted substantial growth in revenues in the third quarter of 2011.

As of end-September last year, the company’s mobile browsing revenues rose to over P1.4 billion, a 64-percent increase from the previous year’s level on the back of the company’s strong portfolio of new services that promote the use of mobile Internet for social networking, search engine, e-mail services as well as entertainment through the use of mobile applications or apps.